Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone (Feb. 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activists. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and even pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Simone was born in Tryon, North Carolina, one of eight children. She began singing at her local church and showed prodigious talent as a pianist. Her public debut in a piano recital at the age of ten. She moved to Philadelphia at seventeen, where she taught piano and accompanied singers to fund her own studying as a classical pianist at New York City's Julliard School Of Music. She took on the stagename "Nina Simone" in 1954 because she didn't want her mother to know that she was playing "the devil's music". "Nina" (meaning "little girl" in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given her and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret. Simone played and sang a mixture of jazz, blues and classical music at the bar, and by doing so she created a small but loyal fan base. After playing in small clubs she recorded a rendition of Gerwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess) in 1958. It became her only Billbroad top 40 hit, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed. She would never benefit financially from the album, because she sold the rights for 3000 dollars. It meant that she missed out on more than 1 million dollars of royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" in the 1980s). In 1987, she experienced an amazing resurgence in popularity when "My Baby Just Cares For Me" from the same album, became a hit all over Europe after it was featured in a Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was then created by Aardman. Her music has featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures. Her music is frequently used in remixes, commercials and TV series. A lot of artists have covered Nina Simone's songs (or even her rendition of songs originally sung by other artists. She remains one of my all-time favorite jazz singers, second only to Billy Holiday. Her webiste is: www.ninasimone.com

Research info provided by: www.wikipedia.org

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